“Haiti’s National Council of Government”;
Welcome to Haiti’s National Council of Government, hereinafter abbreviated as “NCG”. It is of the utmost importance to state that this committee will stray away from many of the traditional definitions and functions of the historic NCG which was the ruling body of Haiti from February 1986 to 1988.
This committee’s timeline will mirror the tumultuous period between 1986 and 1987. That era in Haitian history was plagued with civil and political unrest, bloodshed, coup d’états, and the disapproving eye of the international community. The committee, briefly headed by the famed Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy, was accused of being responsible for more civilian deaths than Jean-Claude Duvalier, the predecessor, had managed in 15 years.
Faced with political violence and coup attempts reminiscent of the Duvalier dictatorship, the state of Haitian politics raised grave concerns as governments such as the United States’ found themselves unhappy with the chaos in its client state. The massive internal uprisings in Haiti were “bad for control, bad for business, and lead to the unpredictability of pinpointing who will come out on top.”1
HISTORY AND POWERS OF THE COMMITTEE
The National Council of Government was Haiti’s executive body and the highest governing body in the state. Headed by Lieutenant General Henri Namphy, it held nearly all executive powers necessary for Haiti’s transition into a democratic Caribbean state.
For the purposes of this committee, only a select few members of the Council of Government will be present. The Chair will serve as President-General. While some Councilmembers may not be physically present in committee, delegates should feel free to reach out to them and any other important or relevant figures through crisis notes and communiqués. The Council will act based on majority rule but ultimately any passed directive requires the final approval of the President-General.
The executive body is responsible for the implementation of law and projects passed by the Parlement (Parliament) in all sectors. The National Council of Government can also propose and draft legislation to be approved by the Parliament. Foreign policy, foreign trade and investment, and international treaties are all under the purview of the NCG. Domestically, the safety of Haitian citizens and national defense against foreign and domestic threats, and even natural disasters which Haiti has constantly been the victim of, also falls under the responsibility of the NCG. To achieve these responsibilities, the National Council of Government is allowed to create specific subcommittees and hire additional officials. While the President-General expects all Councilmembers to contribute to the issues at hand, they are also responsible for overseeing their own distinct ministries and must be constantly in touch not only with the function of the country as a whole but also the sector for which they are individually responsible.
HAITIAN HISTORY
Before Christopher Columbus made landfall on the island of Hispaniola on December 6th,1492, there was a large population of Taino and Arawak people who lived on the island in relative peace. While it is difficult to know their numbers with any exactitude, historians agree that somewhere over half-a-million seemed a reasonable estimate.
They lived lives of great simplicity, farming and fishing. There was little native game on the island to supplement their diets. They had few enemies, but seem to have feared the more war-like and aggressive Carib people who were centered on the nearby island that is today Puerto Rico. Unfortunately for the Taino and Arawak tribes, they befriended the Spanish, and gave them some gifts of gold jewelry. There wasn't much gold on Hispaniola, but the Spanish assumed otherwise and thought that Hispaniola was to be the “motherload of gold” they hoped to find. This led to return voyages to the island and the suppression of the Taino Arawak.
As the natives became virtually enslaved, they were not able to adapt to the new conditions and died in the labor “more than they died from the European diseases that decimated their Central American counterparts”2
When Haiti was dubbed an unprofitable source for gold, it then turned into a key agricultural region that served as a source of food and resources for the Spanish scattered in various areas of the Caribbean and Central America. The island was worked first by the Taino/Arawak, but before long, African slaves were imported. This began as early as 1508 and the Africans became the primary labor source rather quickly. Sugar was introduced as a crop to join tobacco and coffee as an attractive and profitable crop. After the colonization and settlement of various areas of the Americas, the island became “worthless” to the Spanish and was occupied by French “boucanniers” or pirates that settles in La Tortue, a small island off the coast of northern Haiti. In 1697 at the Treaty of Rystwik, at the conclusion of a European war that did not directly involve Hispaniola, the Spanish needed a bargaining chip and ceded the western portion of Hispaniola to the French thus dividing the island. The eastern Spanish portion was called Santo Domingo, Spanish for St. Dominic. The western French portion was called Saint Domingue, French for St. Dominic. But the island was now divided and a defining characteristic, the geographic one, was fixed for modern day Haiti.
FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD
The French colony of Saint-Domingue became one of the richest colonies in the world. The French developed an agriculture economy that was based on slave labor depending on sugar cane, coffee, indigo, cotton, tobacco, and various exotic spices to respond to high and pressing Asian and European demand. The slaves were routinely treated with force, coercion, brutality, and inhumanity. However, the French made a mistake that led to their downfall a couple of years later: they allowed the number of slaves to grow without any concerns to a dangerous ratio. According to Webster professor Bob Corbett, in 1791, “there were approximately 500,000 slaves and about 50,000 free people. Some 30,000 of those free people were people of color, both black and mulatto.”
In the French colonial system free people of color could own slaves and property, however there were other restrictions. On Saint Domingue, the free people of color were not much into the sugar trade but mainly controlled coffee. However, they were a distinct "ruler" class.
This structure was phenomenally determinative of much of later Haitian history. After independence and the coming of a black republic, this class of former free planters emerged as rulers of Haiti. This class structure of a very small class of rulers and a huge mass of common folks has always been the norm in Haiti and is one of the greatest barriers to the emergence of Haiti into a nation with any serious sense of democratic equality.
THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION
The effects of a tumultuous and sanguinary French Revolution in 1791 fueled a yearn for freedom and emancipation. Historians believe that the sentiment towards independence was more concerned with the rights of free people of color than “the freedom of slave”. There had been many revolts of slaves and attempts and social change, but the final moment of French rule came in Aug. 1791 with a slave uprising that effectively defined the start of the movement for independence.
This 1791 uprising developed into a full-fledged revolutionary war. France realized the crucial economic importance of the colony and made every attempt to defend their rule. Eventually it came down to Napoleon sending a large expeditionary force to win the colony back securely for France in 1802. This caused the last eruption of revolutionary fervor and the defeat of the French.
On Jan. 1, 1804 the nation of Haiti was proclaimed. It was an all-black (and mulatto) republic with a constitutional prohibition against white people owning land. This particular provision of the Haitian constitution lasted until 1918 until the occupying forces of the United States forced a constitution onto Haiti which did not contain this prohibition.
EARLY DAYS OF INDEPENDENCE
The early leaders of the newly freed and independence state involuntarily imitated the French system of governance by placing a great deal of weight on developing an agricultural economy based on plantation agriculture and sugar. While this venture proved to be very successful, it raised concerns about imitating a slave economy that resembled European serfdom.
Between about 1820 to 1840, under the presidencies of Alexander Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, the old French plantation system of economy died forever. While the remnants of French colonialism disappeared on the surface, France maintained and exerted a great deal of power over Haitian trade and finances. This was attributed to the 1824 Franco-Haitian Agreement in which France agreed to recognize Haitian independence if Haiti paid a large, overwhelming, and controversial indemnity. This kept Haiti in “a constant state of debt and placed France in a position over Haiti’s trade and finances.”3 In the briefest form what developed was a world of one nation, but really “two Haitis.” There was the official nation of Haiti, ruled by the government, but really centered in the two main cities, Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien and the next half-dozen largest towns, all but one being a seaport town.
These towns were controlled by the small property owning elite. The vast majority of Haitian people lived in the rural areas and basically didn't belong to "Haiti" in any normal sense of the term. They performed subsistence agriculture and stayed away from "Haiti" and its government and army as much as they possibly could. Given the mountainous nature of much of Haiti, this was not difficult to achieve. There were buffer zones, markets, where the rural peasants could trade agricultural products, especially coffee, at a fraction of its international value, in exchange for essentials. This trade allowed the elite class to make a substantial income and for the masses of people to survive in some sort of peace, security and isolation from "Haiti," the official nation.
Again, this process was extremely definitive in forming and creating the fundamental social, economic and governmental system which is still dominant in Haiti today. In order to move the Haiti 1986 committee forward, it is important to understand the social, economic, and governmental norms that have at times proved to be rather detrimental and has led to a developmental stagnation.
U.S Invasion Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34
The instability of world order as a result of the Great War was visibly mirrored in Haiti. While this is not an affirmation of a direct correlation between World War I and Haitian politics, increased German activity in Haiti was of an increased concern for the United States. At the start of the 20th century, the island witnessed a strong German presence as Germans established trading branches in Haiti that dominated commercial business. As codified Haitian law prohibited landownership by foreigners, the Germans married Haitian women in an effort to circumvent those regulations. As the United States “considered Germany its chief rival in the Caribbean and feared that German control would give them a powerful advantage in the region, they [United States] heightened their activity to deter foreign influence.”3
The political sphere and situation in Haiti was particularly dire, especially between 1911 and 1915. In those four years, seven presidents were assassinated or overthrown which increased the U.S fear of foreign influence. In 1914, the American Wilson Administration sent U.S Marines to Haiti and “removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank for safe-keeping in New York, thus giving the US control over Haitian finances.”3
After Haitian President Vilbrun Guillaume-Sam was captured in the National Palace and murdered by his own dissatisfied citizens, President Woodrow Wilson sent the U.S Marines in Haiti to “prevent anarchy”. In reality, the act was a U.S effort to protect American assets in the area and to deter a possible German invasion. The American forces, enabled by the Haitian-American Treaty of 1915, enabled the creation of the Haitian Gendarmerie, a military force composed of both U.S citizens and Haitians under the general control of the U.S Marines. In 1915, the U.S Government forced and influence the election of a pro-American Haitian government that did not represent the choice of the Haitian people and only increased unrest in Haiti.
The Gendarmerie, under American leadership, established policies that at times mirrored American society – the more unpopular policies included racial segregation, press censorship and forced labor. After peasant rebellions in 1919-20, the U.S Senate “sent a committee to investigate abuses and subsequently reorganized and centralized power in Haiti.” After reorganization, the country remained fairly stable and achieved economic prosperity. In 1929, strikes and uprisings coerced the American government to begin withdrawal from Haiti. The United States began training Haitian officials to take control of the government. In 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt “officially withdrew from Haiti while maintaining economic connections reflecting the U.S’ Good Neighbor Policy.”3
Peace and Quiet: Haiti’s Golden Age
In 1938 the West Indies and Central America drew approximately S33 million or approximately 20 percent of the American tourist dollar. The possi- bilities offered by tourism as a source of badly needed foreign exchange for Haiti were explored in 1939 “when Port-au-Prince established a National Tourist Office headed by the President of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. The Haitian government sought information about the incorporation of Haiti into the larger regional tourist trade that was just beginning to develop.”4 President Stenio Vincent foresaw the creation of a resort and travel industry which would attract American visitors of "the better class," and was willing to facilitate the “legalization of casino gambling.”4
Such a project was greatly facilitated by the profound social and cultural changes of the postwar period. The increasing prosperity and leisure of the American consumer after the austerities of the Depression and World War II, and “the efficiency of air travel made tourism possible, and the growing popularity of the Caribbean locale in general accompanied the debut of Haiti as a choice site.”4 The Haitian government planned a national exposition in December 1949 that would salute Haitian art and culture. A slum was razed and its residents displaced to erect the Cite de l'Exposition. Despite criticism, the project was successfully executed and several hotels were built to accommodate anticipated visitors. Gate receipts from the national exposition were low, but the event gave Haiti an “unprecedented amount of international publicity. With few exceptions, subsequent projects would also be located in and around Port-au- Prince because of the lack of roads, electrification, and modern water facilities in other parts of the country.” The growth of civilian air travel accompanied the advent of Haitian tourism, as cheaper and more frequent flights enabled larger numbers of visitors to arrive. The chief beneficiary of these changes, Pan-American Airways, carried 90 percent of all Port-au-Prince bound tourists. Organized crime, associated with the hotels and casinos of South Florida and Cuba, was not slow in making its appearance in Haiti during the late l940s.
Haiti soon became the haunt of the chic international traveler, and drew an impressive list of celebrity guests from the United States and Europe. Visitors had diverse motives. Haiti “appealed to American intelligentsia because the country seemed to reinforce the group’s own languid aversion to the smug materialism and deadening conformity that characterized life in the United States during the 1950s.”4
The Duvalier Regime
FRANCOIS DUVALIER
Bibliography
1. Blum, William. "Haiti – 1986-1994: Who Will Rid Me of This Turbulent Priest?" Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II. Monroe, Me.: Common Courage, 2004. N. pag. Print.
2. Poole, Robert M. "What Became of the Taíno?" Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, Oct. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/what-became-of-the-taino-73824867/?no-ist>.
3. Corbett, Bob. "Short and Oversimplified History of Haiti." Webster.edu. N.p., Aug. 1999. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.
4. "Milestones: 1914–1920 – Office of the Historian." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.
5. Plummer, Brenda Gayle. The Golden Age of Haitian Tourism. Diss. U of Minnesota, 1989. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
6.